Nonwoven webs are currently employed in a variety of disposable absorbent articles, such as diapers, incontinent products, feminine care products, wipes, towels, sterilization wraps, medical drapes, medical garments, and industrial workwear. The nonwoven webs may be utilized as a single layer or as a component of a multilayered laminate or composite. To improve the performance of a nonwoven web, the characteristics of the fibers used to form the web are sometimes modified with a liquid additive. A wide variety of liquid additives are commonly employed for this purpose, including repellents, wetting agents, tackifiers, adhesives, flame retardants, antistatic agents, stabilizers, colorants, inks, etc. Although various techniques may be utilized to incorporate the liquid additives into the web, it is normally desired that they are compounded with the thermoplastic composition prior to melt extrusion to improve processing efficiency and distribution uniformity. For instance, hydrophobic polyolefin compositions are often compounded with liquid siloxanes to improve the wettability or softness of the resulting fibers. Unfortunately, however, the extent to which liquid additives may be loaded into the thermoplastic composition is often limited. Specifically, it is relatively difficult to compound thermoplastic compositions at high liquid additive levels.
As such, a need currently exists for an improved method of incorporating a liquid additive into a thermoplastic composition used to form a nonwoven web.